


When Life Gives You Lemons

by Madame_Kiksters



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Angst, Children, Don't question it, Just accept it, M/M, Soulmate AU, erm...how to tag, growing up fic, jared and connor were friends as children, just...throwing that out there, lemons are a theme throughout, relationship dynamics changing, there are original characters but they are like...teachers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-30 16:05:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12112302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madame_Kiksters/pseuds/Madame_Kiksters
Summary: Evan knew there was something special about Connor Murphy. He felt like he needed to be his friend. But maybe they were meant for something more?The Soulmate AU no one asked for.





	When Life Gives You Lemons

**Author's Note:**

> So, this should be a 3 part fic. The next chapter will have some times skips and then the 3rd chapter should be the end. Hope you enjoy!  
> Also, I don't think that Connor was always surly. I firmly believe that he had a troubled home environment that just... grew too much for him in addition to all of the pressures of school and the future and just... yeah. Enjoy a more innocent Connor while you can.

Evan’s new classroom looked enormous. He didn’t know a room could be so big! His mom and dad talked with a kind-looking woman as he was allowed to wander around the room. There were so many toys and a whole row of computers that had a colorful ball bouncing around the screen.

Evan had been nervous to start school, but maybe it wouldn’t be too bad?

On the way home, he tried to talk about all the cool things he found in the classroom, but his dad kept telling him to be quiet. His mommy would yell at his dad, ordering him not to yell at Evan (which Evan had stopped finding funny a long time ago). Then his dad and mom would argue and Evan would just be quiet and try not to focus on them, because if he did then he might cry. And his dad would yell at him that boys don’t cry.

Sometimes, Evan wished that he wasn’t a boy.

After the yelling quieted down, there was the silence that Evan knew not to interrupt or else there might be more yelling. But Evan knew, after they got home and his mommy started smiling again, that she would find Evan and ask him if he wanted to go for a walk.

Sure enough, after they got home and Evan retreated to the safety of his room to cry quietly for a time, his mommy knocked softly on the door and asked him if he wanted to go for a walk through town.

He nodded and pulled on his shoes again and made sure that his face was dry before he held his mom’s hand and they set off on their walk.

After the house disappeared from sight, his mom squeezed his hand comfortingly and asked him what he thought of his new classroom.

Evan brightened immediately. “There were so many toys, mommy! And there’s ‘puters with rainbow balls on them! And a tiny kitten like we have at our house!”

His mother laughed and Evan felt his heart try and escape his chest. “What on Earth?” she asked herself exasperatedly, “What do you mean a kitten like we have at our house?”

“Not a _kitten_ a _kit-ten_! Where you make tacos.” Evan explained.

His mom nodded in understanding, “Oohh. A kitchen.”

“That what I said. A kitten.” Evan was starting to pout and his mother quickly intervened.

“What else did you like in the classroom? What did you think of the teacher?”

Evan smiled brightly, “Ms. Fiddlesticks looked really nice!”

His mother laughed and ruffled his hair and Evan felt happy again. When they got back home, his dad said sorry for yelling at him.

“It’s okay, dad.” He knew not to call him daddy, because only girls called their dads ‘daddy’. His dad told him so.

“That’s my boy!” His father’s booming voice commended as he gave him a pat on the back. The force he used made Evan jolt forward and it stung a little, but Evan didn’t mind too much.

The first day of school, Evan felt butterflies fill his chest. His mom dropped him off early and the school people were there directing him to the blacktop where all of the children were walking and talking as they waited to be let into class.

Evan stood nervously as he gripped the straps of his backpack before the other kids started looking at him oddly and he hurried up to walk in the same direction as everyone else. He kept his head down and watched everyone’s feet so he wouldn’t step on the back of anyone’s shoes.

He was so focused on watching the ground, that he didn’t notice the sound of shoes slamming on the ground behind him until a boy brushed past him with a laugh.

Evan looked up and watched as a kid his age waved around a black jacket as he ran away giggling. Then he felt someone shove past him as they chased after the other boy. The moment that their arms touched Evan felt a zing of electricity. Like something slotting into place. And he knew, the curly headed boy needed to be his friend.

The curly-headed boy looked at him oddly and his eyes widened for a moment before the other boy whooped and drew his attention back to the black jacket being waved around.

“Give it back, Jared!” he ordered angrily and chased the other again.

“Never!” The other boy answered braggingly.

Evan took a breath and started chasing after them. The curly headed boy spared him a glance as he kept running, but Jared was too fast for them to catch up, and he kept going around other kids making it harder for Evan and the other boy to follow.

Evan wanted to try something. His dad often used a certain tone of voice to get Evan and his mother to listen to him, and it always worked. Maybe… he could try it?

Taking a deep breath, Evan stopped running to yell as loud and as angrily as he could. “Give back that fucking jacket before I beat your ass!”

Every kid around them froze and Jared dropped the jacket in shock. The curly headed boy stared at him with disbelief before he ran over and grabbed his jacket from the ground.

The children around them began pointing their fingers at Evan and their voices sounded like an angry hive of bees as they all made the same noise. “Oooooooooooooooh.”

Evan looked around wildly. What had he done? Why were these kids doing this?

One of the teachers who had been watching marched over to him angrily. The lady snatched up his arm and snapped, “Come here!” before she dragged him away.

“W-where are we going?” Evan asked as he tried to keep up with the teacher’s fast pace.

“You’re going to the office, young man! We do _not_ say words like that. Do you understand?”

“Wh-what words?” Evan puffed as he was pulled along.

“You know what words! Don’t get smart with me!”

Evan didn’t know what words. What had he said? He only told Jared to give the fucking jacket back before he beat his ass. Maybe it was because he said he was going to beat Jared’s ass? But he wasn’t _really_ going to. Surely everyone knew that… right?

Before he could say another word in his defense, he was pushed into a chair in the office. The lady behind the counter was barely visible and Evan could only see her head and shoulders.

The two women talked about him and Evan felt the familiar feeling that told him _not_ to interrupt or he was going to be yelled at.

Finally, their arguing settled down and they were laughing to each other. The woman came around from behind the counter and crouched down on the ground in front of Evan.

“Do you know what you did wrong?” she asked.

Evan nodded his head tentatively.

“And what do you think that is?”

Evan looked down and mumbled his answer, “I said I was going to beat Jared’s ass.”

The lady hummed in agreement. “And do you know _why_ that’s bad?”

Evan knew this one, his mommy had told him this one a lot. “It is not okay to hit people.” He replied with a swell of pride.

“That’s right. Now… do you think we should call your mom and dad and tell them about what you did?” she asked.

Evan’s eyes filled with tears and he bit his lip as he sniffled and wiped them away before they could fall. He shook his head pitifully before he stopped and tried not to cry again. His voice was hoarse as he confessed. “I don’t want them to know.” He squeezed his eyes shut and looked down, “Please don’t tell them.”

He missed the woman’s expression change to worry before she smiled and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. He looked up, still trying not to cry.

“Do your mommy and daddy… hit you?”

Evan’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “Not really. Only when I am bad.”

“How often are you bad?”

Evan shrugged because he didn’t know quite how to answer. He wasn’t punished physically very often. Typically yelling was enough to get him to stop being ‘bad’.

“Is it a lot?” She asked.

Evan shook his head frantically. “Mommy says I am a good boy all the time!”

“What about your dad?”

“He’s okay, I guess. He mostly just yells at me if I am being bad. But he’s nice the rest of the time.” The only problem was that the time his dad spent yelling was beginning to be more than the time he spent being nice.

The woman looked relieved as she let out a sigh. “Well, we won’t call your parents this time. Just don’t say those bad words again. Okay?”

Evan nodded quickly, “Yes ma’am!”

“Good.” The bell rang and interrupted them. She looked up at the clock. “Looks like you had better get to class.”

Evan jumped up out of the chair and tried not to let his bag catch on it, “I promise I won’t say bad words ever again!”

“You’d better not!”

With those words ringing behind him, Evan was out the door and hurrying to his class. He got a little turned around before he found the familiar stickers on the window. He saw Ms. Fiddlesticks holding the door open as the students filed in and hurried along behind them.

“Just take a seat at one of the tables everyone!” she called. And Evan could tell by the sound of her voice she had probably said that too many times already. He found the curly headed boy and felt his heart flutter with excitement. He hurried over to the table but the rest of the chairs suddenly filled with students.

Evan started to get upset before he took a breath and moved to a table behind the other boy so he could at _least_ look at him. Jared was sitting next to the curly headed boy and the two were talking like they were friends. Evan didn’t understand. Why were Jared and the other boy pretending that Jared didn’t steal the jacket?

Were they friends?

Evan wanted friends.

He looked out over his empty table and fiddled with his thumbs. One more student came in and smiled at another group and sat with them instead of him. So… Evan was alone.

Ms. Fiddlesticks closed the door and walked into the room finally surveying her group. She counted heads and seemed to be satisfied with the number before she noticed that Evan was all alone.

She began rollcall and when she got to Evan and he raised his hand sullenly, she took a break. “Evan, why don’t you come sit up here with everyone else?”

Evan looked around and there were no more seats available. “It’s okay, Ms. Fiddlesticks. I’m fine.” He wasn’t fine.

“Well…” she also looked around and found that there were no seats anywhere. “As long as you’re sure.”

Evan wanted her to make someone move, but at the same time, he didn’t want anyone to not like him because they’d had to move. It was rough being a five-year-old these days.

The teacher continued rollcall and called Jared’s name and then two names later the curly headed boy raised his hand in response to the name Connor. Connor Murphy.

That was a much better name than Evan Hansen.

The teacher finished rollcall and then gave them each a piece of paper and a can of markers and a box of crayons per table.

“I want you all to make nametags for yourselves, alright?” She set a can of markers and a box of crayons at Evan’s table and gave him a wink, “Lucky you! You get these all to yourself.”

That made Evan feel a little better.

She gave them a strip of paper that had their name on them and asked them to copy the letters onto their nametags. Evan bit his lip as he focused on tracing the letters accurately. But something still didn’t look right. He put them in his favorite color, blue.

He also drew some flowers and Christmas trees without the lights. His mom told him what they were once, but he forgot. He looked up in thought and decided to draw some stars for good measure.

There… perfect.

There was a scuffle at the other table as Connor and Jared argued. Apparently Jared had pushed Connor’s arm while he was writing his name and so he pushed Jared’s arm while he was drawing. After they settled down Connor put down his crayon and sat back in his chair pouting. Jared drew something else and then stuck his tongue out at Connor.

Evan looked over the two boys’ shoulders and found their nametags much different than his. Connor’s had fire and a lizard and Jared’s had lemons and some weird things on it. He looked back at his and felt a little bad. But he liked his flowers and not Christmas trees.

He took a chance and leaned closer to Connor. “I like your lizard.”

Connor looked at him with confusion, “What lizard?”

Evan pointed to the green lizard, “That.”

Connor looked at the lizard before turning back to Evan with a glare. “That. Is. A. Dragon.”

Jared immediately started laughing beside him.

Evan quickly backtracked. “O-oh. I just thought it was a lizard but I can really see that dragon now! Did it make all of the fire?”

Connor appeared to relax a bit. “Yeah, he did.”

Jared, apparently having forgiven Evan for threatening to beat his ass, shoved his nametag almost into Evan’s face. “How do you like mine?”

“Uhh, I like the yellow and green in your name. Mine is only one color.” He was scared to compliment anything else for fear that he would get it wrong again.

Jared smiled proudly. “That _was_ a great idea, wasn’t it?”

He seemed to be waiting for more compliments and Evan tried to add more, “I like the lemon and the uhh, the heart.”

Jared laughed, “I did that because Connor made me mess up on my money.”

“ _You_ made me mess up on my name first.” Connor accused.

Ms. Fiddlesticks gave them a stern glare, “ _Boys.”_ She said threateningly. The three of them immediately quieted. They didn’t notice that the teacher continued to watch them before she smiled to herself.

Jared lowered his voice, “So what did you draw, ummm.”

“Evan.” Connor answered and Evan felt his face warm pleasantly at the thought that Connor knew his name.

Evan was so preoccupied that he failed to cover his nametag before Jared could see it.

The boy immediately began to make fun of him.

“Are those _flowers_? What are you… a girl?”

“No!” Evan denied angrily, he felt his face get hot again and tears start to prick his eyes. He _wasn’t_ a girl! He just liked flowers. There was nothing wrong with that.

Connor picked it up and looked at all of the flowers and he gave a small smile. “I think they’re pretty. Are those the same kind of trees that are used during Christmas?”

Evan brightened and excitement coursed through him. “Yeah! I forgot what they were called but I _really_ like them!”

“I am glad that they can make you so happy. And the stars are nice too. All Jared has is money, his phone, lemons, and the heart.” Connor assured him.

Evan smiled and Jared started to protest before the teacher quieted them down again.

“Alright, everyone. I hope you have finished your nametags because they will be with you all year.” Evan felt a faint jolt, he didn’t know that his nametag was for _others_ to look at. “I want you to turn them in to me and then you can go play for a bit while I set them up.”

The students cheered and lined up to give their nametag to Ms. Fiddlesticks. Evan was last to turn his in and he lingered next to her, hesitant to try and join in on one of the groups of children. He caught eyes with Connor and the boy held up a toy truck in offering.

Evan hurriedly made his way over to the two boys and accepted the truck. “So, how do we play?” Evan asked.

“We just… push the trucks around and make deliveries.” Jared explained matter-of-factly.

“That sounds…” Evan didn’t want to say boring but… it sounded boring.

Something must have shown on his face because Jared immediately got defensive. “Well if you don’t like it, what do you suggest?”

“N-nothing, I want to play trucks!”

Jared snorted before he began to angrily set up the town. Connor set up his own space and Evan watched them work. Connor nudged his foot against Evan’s and made a face before looking at Jared and smiling at Evan conspiratorially. Evan smiled shyly in return and Connor scooted some of his supplies over for Evan to make his part of the town.

Evan looked at the other two’s and tried to find a balance using what he had, but it ended up looking bad anyway, in his opinion.

“Now what do we do?” Evan asked.

“Now we make deliveries.” Jared began to drive his truck around before stopping in front of one of the blocks that was supposed to be a building. “I got yer stuffs in back if ye want it.”

“Why are you talking like that?” Evan asked.

“Because I am a truck driver from down south? Why, you don’t like southerners?” Jared asked playfully.

“Umm, they’re fine. I just wanted to know why you were talking like that.” Evan explained.

Jared hummed noncommittally before he began narrating again, this time in a higher voice, “Oh, thank you stranger! I was scared we were going to run out of lemons real soon!” He went back to his deeper southern accented voice, “No trouble, ma’am. That’ll be six nickels.” Back to the high pitch. “That much?” he gasped. “I don’t think I could afford it!” He went back to the deeper voice. “Well, I suppose just this once I could give you a discount.”

“Alright, Jared!” Connor interrupted. “Keep your cooties over there!”

“What are cooties?” Evan asked. He didn’t really get exposed to children and was missing out on a lot of the culture apparently.

Jared and Connor gasped as they scooted away from him.

“Quick! Give him the shot!”

“Shot?” Evan screeched, still remembering all the shots he had to get at the doctor’s so he could go to school.

He found his arm grabbed by Connor and he stopped struggling long enough for him to draw two circles before poking his arm twice, “Circle, circle. Dot, dot. Now you got your cootie shot.”

The two boys breathed a sigh of relief as Evan relaxed when Connor let go of his arm.

“What are cooties?” Evan asked again.

“Doesn’t matter. You can’t get them now unless you kiss a girl.” Jared reassured him.

Evan wanted to get the answer for what cooties were, but Ms. Fiddlesticks told them to come back. They all went to their seats but at Evan’s table, there were _three_ nametags. Jared’s, Connor’s, and his own.

His eyes widened and he found the teacher to give her a smile and found a pleasant grin on her face. They all settled down at their new shared table and that was the start of their beautiful friendship.

**Author's Note:**

> Evan will no longer be swearing out loud for the duration of this fic XD


End file.
